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Introduction to those that keep the memories of Galoob alive!

While I am reletively new to this board, I am, by no means, new to Action Fleet and Micro Machines. It is nice to see that there is still a strong fan base for the wonderful work that was done by the people at Galoob.

I hope my contributions here add to your understanding and love of these toys!

glitch: "hope my contributions here add to your understanding"

-they sure will, if I have anything to say about it; now where'd i put my obsidian order interrogation handbook (it's where i keep all the quextions about mms i was gonna axe you when jdah finally goat-roped you here )
on the subject of insiders, hey jt, ever hear back from anthony yau?
vt

Glitch, you have made a tremendously valuable contribution to this forum, and I can still count your entire number of posts on one hand. I hope GSJ and/or JT will work to engage you in some kind of interview, posting it here, or somewhere even more visible on the SSG site. I doubt I am alone in my curiosity to learn more about you.

If you are ever anywhere near central Pennsylvania, there's a dinner at a fine restaurant waiting with your name on it.

{{{r2dee2}}}{{{VT}}}
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"We have enough youth. We need a fountain of SMART!"

shall we begin?

(activates quantum stasis field which will prevent glitch from using his changeling powers to thwart my obsidian interrogation techniques )
first, a test question: did you know that the original meaning of the term "glitch" was mad magazine artist don martin's sound effect for someone steppin on a dog turd? ok, ecr baselines set, now down to business
i have it on good authority that galoob had planned on a timely release of 2001/2010 mms before hasbin's meddlin derailed said plans. can you tell us what other scifi lines galoob considered adding to its admirably extensive (sw, trek, b5, sst, mib, aliens, t2, titan ae etc) mm interpretations? tron maybe? blade runner? fifth element? galactica? etc?
do you have any info on what other star trek mm ships were planned for? can you recall the organization of these into release waves (3-pack &/or 16-box groupings), and their projected release dates? did any of these make it to prototype stage and if so, where might these be?
i've often wondered what accounted for the differences in mm ship detail resolution between, on one hand, sculpts that pushed the outer limits of the scale of detail plastic could depict, such as the medical frigate, ssd and original ent-d and, on the other, relatively coarse interpretations like ent-e, jemhadar, miradorn etc, whose sculpts could've been executed with a lot more refinement than they ended up. any insights?
were any "series alpha"-type trek mms planned, be they mm scale or af/alpha scale? if so what were they?
finally (for now), do you remain in touch with any of your old galoob cohorts? if so, can you bring em here so we can pick their brains too? vt

Please excuse me if I dont follow EVERYTHING in your message, but I will try.

1. Micromachines themselves were something that often bypassed designers. The only time I ever did drawings of MMs was when we were working on Episode 1, and we wanted to illustrate the construction methods (particularly the Pods) for certian vehicles. Most of the time, Galco was simply given the photo refs and they took it from there. Later, they received photo reductions depicting the size they should be. The whole time I was doing the E1 drawings, one thing kept running through my head: "why?"

In other words, anything that was planned for Micro was determined by the MM project head, and was not something that EVERYONE knew about. To be honest, I have a hard time believing that what was left of Galoob would have been able to pursue another film/TV license aftr what they were paying to Lucasfilm - ouch!! They payed their price, and then payed THE price.

There were drawings made of additional AF Alien(s) vehicles including those seen in Alien 3. I recall a ship we did called the Betty. There were also plans to make T2 and Indiana Jones Action Fleet vehicles and playsets. That one was a KILLER to let go of since I am a HUGE Indy fan. Also, the T2 "future" vehicles would have been a joy to see in AF scale!

2. The way the boxed sets and carded three packs fell on the shoulders of marketing weasels. This is why you often had to buy two old Star Wars micros in order to get the ONE new vehicle. Better yet, why you had to buy the boxed set in order to get the "exclusive" Vader Star Destroyer. Those sick bastards...

3. Again, the Micro ships (especially those outside of Star Wars) were not my job. Sorry.

4. Hmmm...resolution. I have never heard it put that way, but it is a appropriate word. The protos are works of art, and it would have been IMPOSSIBLE to capture the detail of those bad boys. Most of the details are impossible to see with the human eye. I am NOT exagerating. These things are amazing. They must be seen to be fully appreciated.

The reason the details are lost is due to the soft plastic and the thick paint used primarily for safety reasons. The reason for 99.9% of all inaccuracies is due to one of two things: cost or safety.

5. I have only kept in touch with one of the designers and two of them non designer types. The designer I keep in touch with lets me know what is going on with the others.

As far as I know, two have found new jobs in the toy industry, a few are working on there portfolios and computer skills, and one had a stint in the video game industry. Unfortunately, there are still a few still looking for work. I think I am the only one left that still works on Star Wars. Most of them probebly don't want to look at another spaceship again!

One thing I would like to clear up.... A HUGE portion of the design work on AF was shopped out to another firm. I'm sure that most of you have an image of everything being done in the Galoob design room with all of the models hanging from the ceiling, but the truth is almost everythng Action Fleet was designed outside that room. Let's just call the firm Met F. EVERY AF Star Wars vehicle from the very first series was done there as well as a good chunk of the AF and MM playsets, die cast, and all but two of the mini scenes.

I just thought it was time for Dave and his crew to get their well deserved, LONG overdue credit.

T2 AFs?!? I've often wished these had been made, in fact I said so again to a friend just about a week ago! Here's hoping that EP2 AFs sell so well that Hasblo gets hot to find other subject matter to exploit, and that the upcoming T3 and its predecessors are considered as potential fodder.
[well, I can HOPE, can't I??]

{{{r2dee2}}}{{{VT}}}
_____________________________________
"We have enough youth. We need a fountain of SMART!"